Regardless of your thoughts on what OS should be used on HP’s TouchPad, work on getting a fully-featured version of Android up and running continues unabated.
There’s been a lot of progress in the past few weeks, but a group of devs revealed today that one crucial piece of the puzzle has just been popped into place: the touch screen finally works!
In addition to getting a TouchPad going on Android 2.3.5, a video released by Team TouchDroid earlier today shows that their new multitouch drivers seem to work without a hitch. The TouchPad can detect up to ten input points simultaneously, which is utter overkill for most applications, but it’s heartening to see nonetheless.
With this, HP’s FrankenPad is one step closer to being a reality. It’s not clear whether or not Team TouchDroid’s experimental TouchPad has anything else going for it, like working WiFi or audio, but it’s certainly within the realm of possibility. These are, after all, the guys who managed to get a TouchPad to successfully dual boot into both Android and WebOS.
Considering the collective amount of time poured into this project, it’s starting to look like a feature-complete Android TouchPad is going to materialize sooner rather than later. It could happen just in the nick of time, too: with HP possibly churning out a farewell production run, a user-friendly port process (which is required to claim Hacknmod’s bounty) could give clamoring consumers yet another reason to mob their local retailers.